‘Your parents said you kept trying to go home, but they don’t know you were arrested.’
‘Of course they don’t. How could they?’ Sophie picks up the dragon brooch and turns it over in her palm. ‘And you?’ she says, her green eyes fixed on mine. ‘What’s your excuse?’
‘My excuse?’
‘For abandoning me. For pretending like we were never friends. You never wrote to me, never tried to visit me.’
So she does hate me.
‘Marquis said we should leave you to settle into your halfway house,’ I lie.
Sophie lets out a hollow laugh. ‘You’ve clearly never set foot inside a halfway house, Viv.’
‘I …’
The truth is, after Sophie was demoted, all I wanted was to forget. How could I visit her in her halfway house, knowing it was my fault she was there?
‘After the Examination—’
‘Don’t you want to know why my parents were arrested?’ I say. I’ll admit to them being rebels if it means Sophie will stop talking about her demotion. ‘They—’
‘Care to let us join the conversation?’ A haughty-looking girl with black skin and hair worn in sleek twists round her face is staring at us. ‘It seems you both have a lot to discuss.’
‘Yes, we do,’ I snap, pulling Sophie by the sleeve.
She shakes me off.
‘Sorry,’ she says to the girl. ‘Vivien’s not accustomed to being interrupted.’
The comment smarts like a slap. I stare at Sophie and her bottom lip curls.
The girl grins and shakes Sophie’s hand. ‘Serena Serpentine.’
First Class, then. Most First Class families have dragon-descended names, a symbol of power and wealth.
‘Sophie Rundell,’ Sophie says, turning expectantly to me.
‘Vivien Featherswallow,’ I mutter, glaring at Serena.
So much for showing the shiny version of myself.
‘I’m Dodie,’ says the girl with red hair, the one who asked Ravensloe a question. She clutches the pass round her neck and I glimpse the wordsSecond Class.
‘Katherine,’ says a pale, pixie-like girl. ‘Anyone else here a codebreaker?’
My heart leaps. ‘I am,’ I say quickly.
Discretion be damned.
‘Any idea what kind of code we’ll be breaking?’
I shake my head, disappointed that she doesn’t know, either. ‘They told me I’d be working with languages.’
‘I bloody hope not,’ Sophie snorts.
I spin round. ‘You’re a—’
‘Codebreaker? I’m afraid so,’ she says. ‘What’s wrong, Vivvy? Did you think you were the only one?’
